For all you stay-at-home-ain’t-going-to-the-beach-on-Labor-Day-and-besides-there’s-a-storm-coming folks who also happen to be theater buffs, you’ve got a great weekend coming up.
It’s the 15th annual Kennedy Center Page-to-Stage New Play Festival, an explosion, an array, a celebration of free readings, open rehearsals and near-full performances of plays, musicals and some beyond-genre-and-category works being developed by local, regional and national playwrights, librettists and composers from more than 50 D.C.-area theater companies.
The festival takes places at venues throughout the Kennedy Center, Saturday, Sept. 3, through Monday, Sept. 5. All performances — get this — are free, with no tickets required. Seating is limited, on a first-come, first-served basis. Times are as follows: Saturday, 11 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 6 to 7 p.m; and Monday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
During the festival, the center’s atrium and roof terrace will be transformed into a café and beer garden, with complimentary coffee from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and beer, wine and spirits at reduced prices.
Here are a few highlights among the many productions that theatergoers might want to check out.
Saturday, Sept. 3
The Ally Theater Company presents “Clover” by Laura Rocklyn and Ty Hallmark, a new, full-length play centered on the Gilded Age social life of the troubled Clover Adams, wife of Henry Adams (11 a.m., Israeli Lounge).
Seventh Street Playhouse presents “A Musical Medley” directed by Beatrix Whitehall, comprising pieces from the musicals “Lincoln and God,” “Vandergrift!,” “Peggy” and “David: The Bluegrass Musical” (noon, South Atrium Foyer).
Scena Theatre presents “Illegal Helpers” by Maxxi Obexer, directed by Robert McNamara, about (you guessed it) illegal immigrants and the folks who help them (12:30 p.m., South Opera Tier Lounge).
Pallas Theatre Collective presents “Crazy Mary Lincoln,” a new musical about a very different first family (2 p.m., Family Theater).
The Kennedy Center 2016 Very Special Arts Playwright Discovery Competitions (3 p.m., Russian Lounge).
Words, Beats and Life presents “Flattops and F Words” by D.C. native Star Johnson, a love letter to the mothers of hip hop in a choreopoem style (3:30 p.m., Millennium Stage North).
The Washington Rogues present “Pillowtalk, and Other Parts of Speech” by Natalie Piegari, comic vignettes about romance in the 21st century (4:30 p.m., South Opera Tier Lounge).
The Georgetown University Program in Theater and Performance Studies presents “Appalachian Nightingale” by Olivia Duff, directed by Anita Maynard-Losh, about an ancient myth, tough banjos and other things (5:30 p.m., Atrium Café).
Tonic Theater Company presents “Dahlia” by P. Seth Bauer, a return to the Black Dahlia murder in 1940s Hollywood (6 p.m., Russian Lounge).
Playwrights Group of Baltimore presents “USA 2017,” ten-minute plays speculating on post-2016 election life (7:30 p.m., Millennium Stage North).
African-American Collective Theater presents “More Than a Mouthful” by Alan Sharpe, short plays about black lives in the community (8 p.m., Terrace Gallery).
Sunday, Sept. 4
Synetic Theater, the area’s pioneer of silent movement theater, offers some demonstrations and scenes from its upcoming production of “Dante’s Inferno” by Paata Tsikurishvilli (6 p.m., Millennium Stage).
Monday, Sept. 5
Crash of Rhinos presents “The Lost Chapters of Peter Pan” by Paul Reisman, in which a wandering, post-Neverland Pan meets Wendy again (11:30 a.m., Family Theater).
Venus Theater presents “Juliana” by Vanda, a dramatization of Vanda’s novel about LGBT life in 1940s New York City (noon, Roof Terrace Restaurant).
Baltimore Playwrights Festival presents scenes from six plays (12:30 p.m., Terrace Gallery).
Monumental Theater Company presents “Wendy,” more on Peter and Wendy, in musical form (1 p.m., Atrium Café).
Faction of Fools presents “Classics Made Foolish – The Threequel,” putting its touch of unique physical comedy on classic scenes (1 p.m., Millennium Stage North).
Rorschach Theatre presents “Forgotten Kingdoms,” Randy Baker’s play set in Indonesia, directed by Shirley Serotsky (1:30 p.m., Theater Lab).
Doorway Arts Theater Company presents “A Minute in Presidential History” (3 p.m. Israeli Lounge).
The Welders presents “Girl in the Red Corner” by Stephen Spotswood, the inaugural production of the second generation of the Welders Playwrights’ Collective, in which a young girl takes up mixed martial arts lessons (6 p.m., African Room).
Mosaic Theater Company of DC presents “Hooded, or Being Black for Dummies” by rising star Tearrance Arvelle Chisholm, directed by Serge Seiden (6:30 p.m., Theater Lab).
NextStop Theatre presents “Still Alive” by Jonathan Coulton and Ricky Drummond, with Coulton’s music, zombies and robot apocalypses (7 p.m., South Atrium Foyer).
LiveArt DC presents “Becoming ‘It’, The Clara Bow Story” by Alia Faith Williams, about the rise of silent-movie sex symbol Clara Bow, dubbed the “It Girl” (7:30 p.m., Russian Lounge).
